President Putin invites PM Tsipras to Moscow to celebrate Nazi troops capitulation to Red Army, May 9

Posted by   in Politics
That was a good one! While Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis was holding a meeting and a press conference with his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble, Vladimir Putin moved to play a prank with Berlin.
He called Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and invited him to Moscow. State NERIT Tv reported that Tsipras visit to Moscow is scheduled for May 9th 2015.
PM Tsipras reportedly expressed his intention to comply with the request.
Why 9. May? Russia celebrates 9th of May as the Victory Day to mark the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War.
According to Greek media, the phone conversation took place at 1:30 pm when the Varoufakis-Schaeuble meeting was scheduled to conclude and the press conference to start.
Putin and Tsipras reportedly talked about “all issues”.
In a statement issued by the Russian Presidency, Putin and Tsipras talked about the Ukraine and “other international issues, among them the South Stream and the Turkish Stream pipelines.
This invitation is considered as a step “to refresh Russian-Greeks relations”.
Also the Russian Foreign and Defense Ministers have invited to Moscow their Greek counterparts.
I cannot tell, how the Russian-Greek relations will develop in the future, but one is sure: Athens flirts with Moscow in an effort to take a breathe from the intense pressure by Germany, the Eurogroup and the ECB. pressure.
As a high-ranking Greek official told media earlier today,
“Greece wants to broaden the spectrum of intense negotiations and the pressure tools towards German intransigence.
The high-ranking official said also that the conversation took place after Putin’s request, who shows strong interest for the moves of the Greek government.”

It is surely a challenge for the Greek government to prove it can pull the strings the right way.